The visual dilemma

Have you seen those  infographics for job ads yet? I'm living under a rock, so maybe this is old news. But for me, this alarming new trend brings my ongoing misgivings about the anything-goes world of infographics into the starkest possible relief.

I understand the point of infographics to be to tell a data-based story more clearly (or to tell stories more clearly using data) and in a more digestible way than is possible using words alone.

So why do the vast majority of infographics contain so much text?

Designers, of all people, should realise that the visual elements they add to an infographic add at least one layer of communication.

If a picture tells a thousand words, you don't just want fewer words in your infographic, you want fewer visuals, each with a clear, powerful message.

The current state of infographics champions form over function: designers dazzled by the prestige and viral potential of what, let's face it, is currently little more than a gimmick format choose the format before they consider the data, story, or message.

That's why we get infographics that try to express concepts like these:

Well, how do you list the disciplines required of a role in an infographic? I'd argue that you don't. It's not data, and it just adds words to what should be a visual message. (As for secret powers, that's anybody's guess.)

This information would be better written as bullets in a list. Why? Because as we look at that layout, our brains have to navigate an unfamiliar landscape (which—yes—captures attention!), and we start to wonder about aspects of that landscape. We're paying attention to the imagery and how it's positioned within the interface, and wondering what that implies about the text information.

If the answer's "nothing", as it so often seems to be with today's infograhics, then you're wasting users' time and mental energy.

I think text in infographics should be as reviled as fine print on financial documents.

Infographic text should succeed at a glance, the way a good site IA does.

If your graphics don't carry so much of the message that you can't say everything else you need to say about a given point in maybe three words or less, all your trendy infographic is doing is adding complexity to a message that could probably be more clearly expressed using just words.

And that's a sad, sad thing for a designer to spend time doing.